Ghoul Panic
Ghoul Panic, known in Japan as Oh! Bakyuuun ( オーバキューン? Lett. "Oh! Shoot") , is a video game first person shooter, developed by Eighting and published by Namco in 1999 in the games room and converted later in 2000 for the console PlayStation Although the title adopted in the West refers to Ghosts, these are completely absent in the game Description Ghoul Panic is a comedy adventure game, set in a haunted mansion. Using a PlayStation light-gun, take on the might of vampires, monsters, mummies, skeletons and spooks to open the locked doors and uncover hidden bonuses. A conversion of the arcade game, with 3 difficulties and hidden game modes. There are also PlayStation exclusive game modes, including Survival, Adventure and Remix. Overview Ghoul Panic is a light gun game developed by Raizing Co., Ltd. and published by Namco for PlayStation and Arcade. The game was published in European countries on the PlayStation by Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. The game was designed to be played with the G-Con45 light gun, however the option was available for players to use an analog controller or even the PS1 mouse. Story The story for Ghoul Panic is quite simple. The evil witch Witchina, along with her evil minions, has taken over the town and turned all of the villagers into yellow cats, she has taken up residence in a local mansion and it is up to the two heroes Kevin and Lisa, two people who were turned into cats but happened to have guns on them at the time, to defeat Witchina and return the town to normal. When Witchina is eventually defeated, her evil magical spells are undone and the townsfolk, along with Kevin and Lisa, turn back into humans, we also see all of the ghosts and ghouls leaving the mansion and flying off in search of new places to haunt. Gameplay The game is set in a haunted house and the main 'Adventure' part of the game took on a first person dungeon-crawling vibe for the most part as players would travel in one of 4 directions from screen to screen along corridors and through doors. Mini-Games On most screens, the player would be attacked by some form of ghoulish creature and enter one of several mini-games, which they would have to complete in a set amount of time in order to clear the area and continue their journey. These mini-games varied from the like of having to shoot a set number of ghosts as they flew across the screen, or more precision-based games involving shooting spiders from off the head of an innocent character. Game Modes The game featured several modes aside from the aforementioned single player Adventure. There was arcade mode in which the player would have no control over the direction they traveled in, but instead would merely follow a set course through the haunted mansion, taking on the various mini-games and challenges as they went. Survival mode involved the player trying to clear as many stages as possible before they ran out of lives. Practice mode allowed the player to select from any of the mini-games and practice completing them as many times as they liked. Finally, Party mode was specifically designed for multiplayer, allowing up to 8 players to compete against each other by going through the different stages and trying to earn as many points as possible. Ghoul Panic is a simple gallery shooter game, where you must shoot the given targets on the screen. Your main targets are ghosts, skeletons and other monsters, with most missions requiring that you shoot a specific number of enemies. Later missions introduce targets you must avoid shooting, such as the cats which you must protect and bomb-shaped monsters. The Arcade game is played with a lightgun, while the PlayStation port can be played with the regular joystick (in which case you control a reticule for targeting) or the Namco GunCon. You can pick between three difficulty levels, with Practice being only 6 stages long, while on Medium and Advanced you play through all stages. The game features various mission types: * Target Shooting: The most common type of mission, you have to shoot a specific number of enemies before the timer runs out. * Object Destruction: You are given a single target which you much shoot continuously to either destroy it or push it into a designated place. * Cat Rescue: You must shoot enemies to prevent them from reaching the cats. * Accuracy Shooting: You must shoot a given target with limited ammo. * Boss Fight: After beating four missions you face a boss. These play much like the boss fights from the House of the Dead series, where you must hit a specific part of the boss while deflecting it's attacks.